Miss Washington photo flap a waste of our time

Miss Washington Elyse Umemoto told those gathered at a press conference in Tacoma Wednesday that the photos that spread online like a virus of petty distraction were stolen from her.

According to a KOMO report we’ve included below, they were private photos that someone – presumably someone else – put on the Internet.

Umemoto also told media that none of the photos were taken during her year of service as Miss Washington. The crown she wore in some pictures commemorated an earlier title.

All this should make us think very seriously about whether we should buy TMZ‘s implication that this is a big deal.

Had Umemoto posted the pictures herself under some delusion of privacy in a public online world, we’d be right to call her naive and irresponsible, and discuss the widening gap between the freedoms of a public figure and those of the public at large.

But if it’s true the pictures were uploaded by someone else, we should ask how much blame is left.

A public figure can be endlessly berated for illegal and immoral things done before they were stars – if only because the tactic has been made legitimate by our expectation that they be more than human. But flipping off the camera? Making the hand sign for “eating out”?

I’m just not sure that’s worth our time. This story’s nothing more than a headline – and a lot of pretty pictures of a very pretty girl.